Bat Tunnel!!!

One of my very good friend here in Valparai is working on bat diversity. I had the pleasure of accompanying her on an exploratory visit to a 14 mile long man-made water tunnel that by word of mouth, contained thousands of bats. So we arrived at the mouth of this tunnel after an exciting encounter with a herd of Gaur and a common monitor lizard on our way. We walked into the tunnel nervously as we did not know the timings for the opening of the flood gates. As we entered, we were in for a bat bonanza!!! 30 meters into the tunnel we saw many clusters of bats roosting on the ceiling. They shifted away from the torch beams as we scanned the ceilings, crevasses and crannies. (The best i could get with a 1600 ISO)
Little into the tunnel the clusters gave way to a sea of bats.My friend confirmed the presence of at least 3 species of bats belonging to the genus Rhinolophus, Hypoderma and some fruit bats.

After about 600 meters into into the tunnel we could see a galaxy of eye shines and sensed vibrations that shook the surroundings. Our mind raced to the flood gates and we geared to face the rushing water......But the water level remained the same, instead a wave of disturbance was felt above head. Hundreds of bats were fluttering their winds and moving around to find darker spots. It was not a very pleasant place for people with a good sense of smell either. The floor was splattered with bat droppings. We were not too eager to meet the concentrated swarm of flying bats and so we decided to turn back. As the entrance of the tunnel came into view, we saw bats that looked like large black butterflies at the light end of the tunnel. (Black Butterflies)

On our way back we ran into the same herd of Gaur and got 2 see individuals play-fighting -


After a couple of days we returned to count the bats that exit the cave. A count of 1000+ individual bat exits were recorded. 1000+ entries were also recorded in a span of 2 hours after dusk.